Why do farmers abandon their fields?

(Baonghean) -According to newly published statistics of the Agriculture sector, in the last summer-autumn crop, Nghe An was the locality where farmers abandoned and returned their fields with over 1,200 hectares, of which Nam Dan was the leading with 700 hectares, followed by Hung Nguyen with approximately 300 hectares, the rest were Dien Chau, Quynh Luu, Tan Ky, Do Luong districts...

The authorities have pointed out a number of reasons such as people producing rice and growing crops are not profitable due to low output prices while the prices of "inputs" such as fertilizers, plant protection services, and care costs are increasing... Besides, a large number of farmers, especially farmers in the suburbs of cities, towns or small industrial zones, and quarries, have found jobs with stable and higher incomes, so instead of continuing to stick to the fields, they decided to return the land to the locality to reduce all types of contribution obligations.

In fact, the situation of people abandoning and returning their fields has not only appeared recently, but this phenomenon has appeared for more than 10 years. In Nam Giang commune (Nam Dan) or Hung Dao commune (Hung Nguyen), people and commune leaders frankly expressed that they do not want to farm and go to work for the quarry (Ru Muou) and production workers, loading and unloading bricks and tiles for local factories with higher incomes. In addition to the reason that agricultural production brings low incomes, there is another reason that unfavorable weather makes it difficult for farmers to stick to their fields. When asked why people abandon their fields and what solutions the locality has for people to grow winter crops, the leader of a purely agricultural commune in Dien Chau shared: Now people do not want to do the summer crop, let alone the winter crop. Working in the winter crop often carries high risks. Specifically,

This year, the people in the commune had to plant rice 3 times but all 3 times failed. The leader of this commune is also worried that, to ensure food security, if the State does not have a policy to encourage people to stick to the fields and keep the rice land, it will be very difficult...

During the research, we learned that the State does not have a policy for rice. More than 2 years ago, along with the regulation to limit the conversion of agricultural land use purposes, the Government issued a decree to encourage people to grow rice, according to which each rice-growing household will receive support of 500,000 VND/sao. However, the cooperatives have submitted documents to the competent authorities for a long time, but until now people have not received them, causing many people to be concerned. Then there is the insurance policy for crops, for example, most recently, some areas unfortunately received BC15 variety, causing heavy damage to the 2013 crop, but nearly a year has passed, people have not been compensated and there is no satisfactory answer.

From the above shortcomings, it is thought that, in order to ensure food security and ensure the lives and incomes of farmers, when issuing policies, the State needs to allocate timely funding to support and encourage people to stick to their fields and crops. On the other hand, relevant functional sectors need to focus on research to make adjustments to production schedules and sowing in accordance with the "scenario" of climate change, minimizing damage to farmers; selecting crops suitable for the soil of each region to exploit the land more effectively.

Nguyen Hai